Mexican gunmen kill Narcos’ scout

Observations Commentary

Despite the fact that all the blood and gore in Netflix’s Narcos might not be everyone’s cup of tea, it still doesn’t detract from one simple fact: it’s a great, great show (just started watching Season 3 so can only speak about Seasons 1 and 2).

The show’s first two seasons detailed in pretty accurate fashion the rise and fall of Colombia’s Cocaine king, Pablo Escobar, and were about as good as a TV show can get.

That being said, fiction turned to reality, sad to say, when a 37-year-old “TV scout,” Carlos Muñoz Portal, was found shot to death earlier this month while driving around central Mexico looking for shooting locales for Narcos’ Season 4.

It’s really hard to figure out why anyone would be driving alone in the one state in Mexico with the most homicides – Hidalgo – but according to the Mexican news source El Pais, as posted by Borderland Beat, Muñoz’s bullet-ridden body was discovered not far from his car stuck in an area of cactus, as if the bad guys had caught up with him, and he had tried to flee from them on foot. He is a Mexican national himself, based in Mexico City, so he obviously knew the dangers.

Muñoz’s work, scouting for TV shows and movies, includes “Sicario,” “Spectre,” “Fast & Furious,” and Mel Gibson’s “Apocalypto.”

In an ironic sense, “Narcos” was filmed in Colombia during its first two seasons, but moved to Mexico to film its third season. Now, according to the El Pais story posted at Borderland Beat, the producers of the Netflix show are thinking it might be safer to move production and filming work back to Colombia for Season 4.

It’s ironic because in the 1980s and well into the ‘90s, Colombia was not the place to be if one was concerned about personal safety. Now, it would appear that Colombia is safer, but according to data compiled two years ago, Mexico is still safer. So, despite the sad fate of Muñoz, the Netflix people may as well stay away from Colombia.

The homicide rate per 100,000 is 16.35 in Mexico; while in Colombia, it’s 26.5.

Still, driving around the central part of Mexico, alone, with a camera in one’s hand, is obviously, and sadly, not the safest thing to do.

In the Mexican state of Hidalgo, according to the El Pais story, in July alone, 182 homicides were recorded. There is no breakdown, however, in that statistic. As in, how many of the 182 were cartel members killing one another vs. innocent civilians or members of Mexico’s military?

“Narcos” Season 3, which follows Escobar’s death at the end of Season 2, is centered around Colombia’s Cali Cartel and the shift of the drug trade to Mexico. According to the story posted at Borderland Beat, Season 4 was supposed to center around Mexico’s Juarez Cartel, which at one point in the last decade turned Ciudad Juarez into the murder capital of the world as the Juarez and Sinaloa cartels battled for control of the lucrative drug route into the U.S.

Currently, Juarez has dropped to number 37 on the list of the most murderous cities in the world.

Caracas, Venezuela is now numero uno.

Acapulco, say it ain’t so, is second on the list.

The once laid-back Ciudad Victoria now ranks number 5; while Tijuana ranks number

22.

Ironically, St. Louis, Mo., ranks number 14 on the list of cities no elected official wants to see his or her city appear – cities with the most homicides.

Long story short, the murder of Mexican TV Scout Carlos Muñoz Portal is indeed sad.

No doubt, his ability to scout great settings helped make “Narcos” into the great show it is.

When life imitates art, however, bad things can and do happen.